Beak versus Oak It has long been surprising that the
woodpecker prefers oak, the hardest of our woods, for tunneling, and the bird often selects healthy trees. A yet more surprising example is worth recording. Some ten years ago the spire of a Sussex church was reshingled with good oak. This year a green woodpecker has been spending such inordinate energy in hammer- ing at these wooden tiles that the congregation is frequently disturbed by the hammering. It may be that the woodpecker's fondness for the oaks begins with a search for the hundreds of torts of insect that the oak, the most hospitable of all trees, entertains ; but there seems to be no signs that these shingles are insect-ridden. The fear is that the .bird will actually destroy parts of the roof ; but probably the attack -is a mere whim that will presently stale.
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